Matthew Good lyrics

Vancouver Internation Anthem (Album Version)

Out of the alleys, our needle strewn fields
Into the sunlight that the brochures reveal
Like snakes come for rabbits and rabbits for meals
Where the oar and the axe flies

Well this is our story (stick to it) but it ain't the truth
Cause the truth's just for liars that need an excuse
Around here love's a gangster and charity's the proof
Where God deals on Sunday's under a rain burning roof
It's five blocks a universe and aliens for each
Like invisible ghettos of privilege and grief
And pinned up between them the carrion fly
Living off skeletons of recycled lives

This is the place you find out
Well this is the way you find out

We all live downtown
Pay two even, no parking
Live with a clown
Step over ourselves
We all live downtown
Pay in blood, no parking
Sleep on the ground
Step over ourselves

We all live downtown
We all die downtown
Step over ourselves

Well this is our story (stick to it) but it ain't the truth
Cause the truth's just for liars that need an excuse
For a king crown a banker, the queen crown a noose
Like heirs to a graveyard where the dirt's always loose
It's five blocks a universe and aliens for each
Like invisible ghettos of privelege and grief
And pinned up between them the carrion fly
Picking off skeletons under a big northern sky

This is the place you find out
Well this is the way you find out

We all live downtown
We all die downtown
Step over ourselves

Song Information

Of all the songs on Vancouver, this one contains the most direct, and personal, commentary about the city in which I spent most of my adult life – which I'm sure will be refreshing to some and a point of contention with others.